Pay to Play

"What do you mean, that game is fifty cents to play? Are you on crack?" The short, wiry young man was poised on his toes, trying to intimidate me. Luckily, he was shorter than I am...and I have a thing for Hispanic guys.

I kept my cool. "Dude, trust me. This is so worth it. You'll see."

He rocked back on his heels, clearly disappointed that his attempt had failed. "Ah, what do you know, you're just a chick!" he scoffed, trying to maintain his macho. "It's just a pattern game! Those went out with...with..."

"Pac-Man?" I grinned at him. "Trust me."

He grumbled, but followed me as I led the way back to the prototype. "This better be good!" he muttered. "Fifty cents...it's a new game, you should be paying me to play it and get free advertising..."

I unlocked the door to the back room of the arcade. I had him hooked, and I knew it. Carlo and his buddies were in and out of this place every other day. They knew me, they knew my style, and they knew I wasn't going to lead them wrong.

The game was in an old Pac-man case. I hadn't led him wrong there. I could almost feel him rolling his eyes. "Hey, I had to put the motherboard somewhere!" I protested.

He eyed it skeptically. "And it's a joystick game?"

"Sure. You'll see once you watch the intro."

As I'd predicted, Carlo grunted and inserted his oh-so-precious fifty cents. The screen lit up with the opening graphics: a spinning rainbow of colors. "Faggy!" he declared.

"Faggy? FAGGY? Carlo, did you leave your vocabulary in the seventh grade or something?"

He grunted again and flipped me the bird. I leaned on the side of the case and watched his face. He complained "These colors hurt my eyes, chica! Can you tune them down?"

Ooh, I merited a chica! Maybe the program was working already. "Just watch, Carlo, OK? Focus on it, because if you miss something because you're complaining I'm not going to refund your money."

He studied the screen. "I'm not sure I get it." He was blinking a little. "You try to rescue each piece and build them at the bottom before the rainbow sucks them in?"

"Before the rainbow spiral draws them in and down..." I corrected him. "The spiral is like a black hole...it sucks everything in." I stepped behind him and started massaging his shoulders. "Spirals are good for that."

"Ah, this'll be easy..." he shook his head. Then he gave a soft moan. "All right, all right...you keep doing that, I'll try it."

"Just watch the screen, the intro is almost over. There'll be little pick-me-up reminders through the program. They'll give you hints."

He hit the start button, and the spiral started spinning. I kept rubbing for a moment, easing the worst of the knots from his muscles. He focused on the game, realizing to his surprise that it was harder to rescue the blocks than he'd expected. The spinning gave them the illusion of being somewhere they weren't.

"Nicole...this is tough!" Carlo was impressed. Good. "This is harder than I thought it would be."

"It gets harder, so concentrate. The spiral is deceptive. You have to really watch it to predict where the blocks will go.

I watched his face. It was illuminated by the screen, his dark skin glowing softly in the game's light. I could see the spiral reflected in his eyes and tore my gaze away.

"Concentrate? Focus? What kind of hints are those?"

"Good ones, Carlo. Concentrate on the spiral, focus in on it. If you do, your motions will get easier and your shoulders will relax...which will make you better able to play, right?"

He nodded absently, absorbed in the game.

"Yeah, you know it does...because the root of succeeding in any game is concentrating, Carlo. You can beat this one, but not if you don't focus in on the rainbow spiral.

"I'll focus, I'll focus...damn, this is hard, chica..." His blink rate had gone way down. By now, "Relax," "Focus," "Concentrate," and "Calm" were appearing and disappearing all over the screen.

"That's it, Carlo...ooh, you got that block...very good...you're focusing very well." I heard a soft chime that told me that the next wave was starting...with its own set of suggestions.

Carlo's shoulders were loose and his stance wide. He wasn't really paying attention to me any more. I glanced at the screen and saw the words "Obey" and "Rest" appear in different places. The first wave suggestions were still there, but were slowly being replaced...and he hadn't noticed.

"Are your eyes getting tired, Carlo? You can close them about halfway, and you can still play..." I held my breath, but he began to blink and his eyes were watering.

"That's it...just focus on the game...nothing else matters..." I heard another chime, then another. They began coming at the rate of about 40 per minute. I started massaging his shoulders again. "Relax, Carlo...you're doing really well."

When he spoke, his voice was slurred. "'m getting tired..."

"You can get through this wave, Carlo, you know you can. Just play a little longer, and then you can sleep." I looked around him, and the word "Deeper" was flashing. Good. "The spiral is drawing them in deeper, Carlo...you have to go in with them to get them and build the structure..."

"Deeper..." he breathed, and a wave of heat seared through my breasts and thighs. I knew I'd won.

"Yes, deeper...build the structure, Carlo, and then you can sleep." He nodded just a little, his head drooping a bit. "Deeper, Carlo...close your eyes a little, focus...deeper...focus deeper...you're sleepy, tired, and in a moment you can sleep..."

He was swaying a little, loose enough that my massage was moving him. I caressed his cute little rear, unable to help myself. "Sleepy and dreamy and you feel good, Carlo, you know you're dreaming now..." The chimes slowed further. I watched him carefully. I knew what would happen as the wave ended, and as it did the machine and I said in unison "Sleep..."

He slumped over the machine a little, his head bowed. The word "Sleep" continued to flash on the screen. "Come on, Carlo..." I whispered. "Come on, sleepy one...you didn't beat the game, but that doesn't matter now. You're so tired, and the machine will always win..."

I took his hand. "Come with me, sleepy. Come to bed."

He stirred a little. I added "You can sleepwalk..I know. I've heard you do it. Come sleepwalk back to bed. You don't have to wake up, this is all a dream..."

Slowly he stood up and followed me obediently to the cot I had set up in the back office. I closed and locked the door behind us. "There's a nice, soft bed there...it's so warm and comfortable. You want to sleep there, don't you, Carlo? Just lay down and feel the satin sheets and the soft pillows."

He settled onto the cot with a deep sigh and closed his eyes. I admired the long eyelashes, the dark skin, and felt another wave of heat in my breasts. I couldn't strip out of my shirt fast enough. "Sleepy...dreaming of the game...can you still see the spiral?"

He didn't stir. In a soft, passive voice he whispered "Yeah..."

"Good, Carlo...good..." God, I was getting so wet at the sound of him, at the look of him. I took his hand and rested it on my breast. "You can make spirals with your fingers, can't you?"

Slowly, dreamily, he began to run his fingers around my aureole. I caught my breath in a gasp. "Yes, you can...and those spirals draw you in...your thoughts going into the spiral like the blocks did..."

I reached out and began to stroke him through his jeans. He moaned softly, fingers pausing in their motion for a minute. "No...keep going, Carlo...you have to go deeper into the spiral...and the feelings you have let you know you're getting closer to the little point in the center..."

"Deeper...in..." he whimpered. He was already rock-solid under my touch. I unbuttoned the fly of his jeans, letting him free. His boxers had a damp spot. I swallowed hard and murmured "That's right...deeper into the spiral..."

"Deeper...in...getting close..."

I hurried to reinforce that. "Getting closer...going deeper in...trying to beat the game, but the game will always win...but you won't remember that part. You just know you like to play."

"Love to play..."

"Yes, Carlo, love to play..." I slid my hand into his boxers and stroked my thumb around the tip...in a spiral, naturally. "Love to play, love to try to win, love to be beaten, love the feeling of going deeper into the spiral..." He groaned loudly as I began to stroke him off.

"Love it...love to be beaten by the game..." he echoed.

I couldn't stand it any more and slid off my sweatpants. It took less than a second to guide his hand to my clit, already hot and swollen. "Love it...love it, Carlo...love to let it make you sleep...love to be deeper...love to forget everything except how the game feels..."

I could barely speak as his fingers spiraled around my clit. My breasts ached, and I leaned over a little so that he could suckle them. "Love to forget everything...except...how...the game makes you feel..." I gasped.

He couldn't answer as he suckled me hungrily. It didn't matter. I kept reinforcing the suggestions as best I could until the waves of heat got too much to bear. After that, I think I was saying something along the lines of "Obey, sleep, deeper, spiral, forget." I'm not really sure.

The orgasm was so strong and so intense. I felt him bucking under my hand, but what I felt most of all was the white starburst that drew itself into my body, into my clit, into a pinpoint...and then exploded outward. I bit my lip to keep from screaming. His strangled groan and pulsing in my palm told me he knew on many levels just what he'd done.

When I could breathe at all, even as I was shuddering, I kept whispering to him "Sleep, sleep, sleep..." His body went limp, fingers dropping away from me. I released him gently, studying him for a few minutes before cleaning him up.

That was last week. He doesn't remember a thing...but he's sending his friend Ving over tonight. Ving told me that Carlo is really hoping to be invited over himself again. Carlo says he'd pay five dollars a shot to get to try it again.